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VFX Artist

Position Overview

Zynga is seeking a VFX Artist to join one of our New Game Teams! We are looking for experienced game effects creators who can conceptualize and create stunning, intense, and impactful game VFX packages for a new in-development, major branded, mobile game title.

The VFX Artist will work closely with the Designers, Tech Artists, and Art Director, creating visual fx which are competitive in the mobile game industry, aid in the clear communication of gameplay, and excite and entertain the player. This Artist will be involved at both the conceptual level, planning effects to compliment requests from design, and at the execution level, creating assets, emitters, and implementing effects in-engine in Unity.

This role involves working as a team with other VFX artists. Our creative team is a thriving community of super talented, industry veteran artists, animators, and myriad other specialists who help bring the vision of our games to life at Zynga - we want to see if you have what it takes to join us in our journey!

Main Responsibilities

• Work closely with the Art and Engineering teams to construct and implement particle systems, UV based animations, and shader VFX in Unity.
• Enforce optimal performance and efficiency of the game’s final visual assets
• Work with lead animator and concept artists to visually develop the look and feel of the game VFX.
• Work effectively to tackle any VFX and sorting-related bugs.
• Research and understand the style of the IP.
• Create materials/shaders to achieve unique styles and hit amazing visual quality.
• Aid and Inform in Creating, maintaining, and communicating VFX art guidelines and implementation techniques with other team members.
• Follow defined and optimized work flows.
• Our ideal candidate is a great communicator, teammate, and proactive problem solver. You draw from a range of skills to creatively determine solutions. You are a contributor of ideas, overseer of pipelines, and collaborator across subject area lines providing expertise and seeking out potential issues before they become problems

Desired Skills and Experience

• Effective communication with team members of varying fields including written documentation of pipeline processes
• 3+ years of experience with Unity and/or other engines.
• Intermediate skills with 3D modeling, rigging and UV texturing with professional 3D software such as Maya or ZBrush
• Understanding of optimizing 3D and 2D VFX assets for memory and performance considerations
• Intermediate skills creating high quality VFX particle systems in Unity
• Core Adobe Creative Suite skills
• Technical background in developing scripts, Photoshop actions, and other automation tools vital for art implementation and optimization
• Experience in game development, with shipped titles
• Experience in Mobile game development, particularly puzzle, character battler, and/or rpg genres is a big plus
• Experience with profiling tools
• Experience with version control software such as Perforce, Git
• Experience writing and modifying shaders is a nice to have
• Knowledge of platform specific development
• Style Range & Flexibility. Be able to create a set of distinctive characteristics that form an art style and maintain consistency throughout shared pieces of art. Be able to shift between different looks quickly for exploration.
• Capable of rapid visualization and able to effectively generate multiple rough storyboards to solve visual design problems.
• Experience in the construction and optimization of shader based systems.
• An understanding of the high and low res modeling 3D processes, with the ability to create clean and optimized topology fit for VFX purposes.
• Ability to use different texture & UV techniques, workflows and tools to hit a quality benchmark visually and technically.
• Understanding animation fundamentals (timing, rhythm, flow, and movement) when creating VFX.
• Working knowledge of Art Pipelines, Game Engines, Optimization, other game fields, rendering/lighting/materials/scene setup
• Please include your portfolio link in your CV

What we offer you:

• Work in a studio that has complete P&L ownership of games
• Competitive salary, discretionary annual bonus scheme
• Full medical, accident as well as life insurance benefits
• Child care facilities for women employees and discounted facilities for male employees
• Generous Paid Maternity/Paternity leave
• Employee Assistance Programs
• Active Employee Resource Groups – Women at Zynga
• Frequent employee events
• Additional leave options for most employees
• Flexible working hours on many teams
• Work with cool people and impact millions of daily players!